Semiotic #2

Signifiers:

• older man
• has relatively plain clothes; nothing fancy, but not necessarily worn out
• carry a briefcase that can contain either clothes or documents
• obviously, a big chunk of himself is missing
• organs such as a heart, lungs, intestines, bladder, kidneys are missing
• there is a sense of motion to him as if he is walking away from the water
• there are two statues that look identical
• the man seems to be disappearing
• or, another way of looking at it, the man is materializing
• the man's face looks worried and worn out, like he sad or depressed
• he is gripping his briefcase really hard; you can see the bones in his knuckles as if he firmly grasping it as oppose to just lightly holding (which I assume lightly holding the case is the more natural pose)

Signified:

• The man is blending in with his surroundings. It is kind of eerie how well he blends in, especially when you look at it from different surroundings. It has an interesting effect where if you focus on the man, your mind fills in the blanks and you see his whole self. However, if you look at the gaps, you lose the man. Perhaps it is symbolizing those people in society that we just past by without giving much notice. There are a lot of people we idolize (like celebrities) but there are also those that do not get noticed. They blend in with their surroundings in our eyes and we miss them. 
• Another meaning to the missing parts of the man is maybe when we see someone, we think we see the whole picture. Our mind fills in the gaps. However, maybe the person is missing parts of themselves or keeps certain things hidden so that we are not, in reality, getting full picture.
• The nature in which the man is grasping his briefcase suggests that it is valuable to him. Maybe his only possessions are in there or, at least, something very important and he cannot afford to lose it.
• However, with the expression of his face (sadness, worry), I think he is gripping the case more because he is scared and it a natural reaction. He is subconsciously straining his knuckles as he thinks about all the things he is worried or scared about. The sadness on his face suggests that something is wrong or that something/event did not go right and he does not know what to do next. Maybe it is financial troubles or a love one's death. 
• His dress and mannerism also suggests that he is of a lower class. Not downright poor, but not living the high life either. He simple clothes and raggedy briefcase suggest that has money to buy clothes and such, but only once in a while.  

Background/Facts

After doing some brief research, I have found two interpretations of the sculptures. One source said that the name of the sculpture was "Le Grand Van Gogh" and it was done by a French artist named Bruno Catalano. If you go by the name, it would mean that the man is Van Gogh. Van Gogh was a famous artist that suffered from deep depression and is believed to have committed suicide in his 30s. During his time, his artwork was never appreciated or earned very much money. It was not until after his death that the art world started to consider his work some of the best in the world. This story can be very symbolic in the sculptor. Van Gogh led a life where people did not really see him. He was missing some peaces. Or, even in his depression, he thought he was missing pieces of himself. Another thing too is that the worried and stressed face can be associated with his depression and what he may have felt during his life. It sort of looks like him, don't you think?

Another source said that an additional meaning from the artist is that the men are representative of world citizens. It is easy to get lost in respects to the entire world. There are so many people that it is easy to get lost and just blend in. Also, with world-wide disasters, wars, etc. people are scared, sad, or worried and they do not know what to do next. Maybe a briefcase is all they have and they have no where to go.

Overall, I thought this was a create example of a piece of artwork that can have so many meanings depending how you look at it. Different things/aspects will jump out at different people and have different messages. I saw it more through the eyes of Van Gogh, but others saw it differently. I, also, thought it was interesting that you can potentially get a different perspective depending at what angle you see it. You can get a different message from the side than you could the front and so on.